After the Handshake

Andrew Cope joined vehicle leasing firm Zenith in 1989 as its most junior founder, working his way up to chief executive and taking the business through six buyouts between 2003 and 2014, growing it past £600 million in turnover and selling to HgCapital for over £200 million. Along the way, a credit crunch left the business one phone call from collapse. 
He then bought vehicle management and accident recovery business FMG in an Endless-backed buyout, taking it from £22 million to over £100 million in turnover in fifteen months before selling to Redde plc.
Andrew joins Josh on After the Handshake to talk through three decades of dealmaking; why does growth take longer to compound than people expect, what private equity gets right and where it falls short, and why he ran every deal on a principle borrowed from eighteenth-century naval captains.

Steve Thomas started Hallmark Fire from a spare bedroom in 1995, building it into an eleven-million-pound fire and security business over eleven years. In 2006, he sold to a buyer who promised to protect what he'd built. Within months, that promise unravelled, and within a few years, Hallmark was gone.
Steve rebuilt with the same partners in 2009, called it Senseco Systems, and did things differently this time. Focusing on recurring maintenance revenue as the foundation, and choosing acquisitions based on their strategic fit rather than size. Senseco grew from ninety staff to over three hundred and fifty across seven sites, took investment from Foundation Investment Partners in 2019, and was acquired again this year by H.I.G. Capital-backed Andwis Group.
Steve joins Josh on After the Handshake to talk about what he got wrong the first time, what he got right the second, and why the buyer matters more than the offer.

Kirsty and Neil Scott started Veriflo at their dining room table in 2015, with two young children, and two rules that never changed. They never risked the house, and they never let the business come before their marriage.
Almost a decade later, they sold the business to Inflexion-backed Celnor Group, under the  strict conditions that Veriflo would keep its name, culture, and the team that they’d built.
The same rules that protected their home and their business decided who they sold to.
Selling Veriflo was never about walking away from the team who'd built it with them, so they picked a buyer who would let it stay Veriflo at its core. Celnor promised no rebrand, and its badge and culture would stay intact. 
And they kept that promise, within a day of the deal completing, their Operations Director became Managing Director.
Now, two years on, they’re both sitting down with Josh to talk about the deal, their journey, and everything they’ve learnt along the way.

Martin Port has built three businesses so far, and had a nine-figure exit for his second business. A serial founder and entrepreneur, it's also probably no surprise to learn that he's Josh's dad, and the first guest on After the Handshake.This episode covers Martin's journey in business so far. From starting Masternaut with almost nothing, making five acquisitions across two businesses, and navigating the 2008 financial crash and COVID without losing the business or the culture.Martin is direct about what breaks first when you scale, why he'd rather stop a business than operate without trust, and how he structures deals to protect himself after the handshake. He also covers what founders get wrong when approaching private equity, and why agreeing everything upfront in the term sheet is not optional.If you're building toward a transaction, raising capital, or trying to hold a culture together under pressure, Martin covers all of it with operational detail and no filler.Martin's current business, Build Concierge, is already at nearly $2M ARR and targeting $12-14M next year.